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- Gosen Wakashu
Kazu naranu mi wa ukikusa to narinanan tsurenaki hito ni yorube shirareji
Worthless as I am, I would rather become a drifting weed, so that the cold one never learns where I have come to rest.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yūyami wa michi mo mienedo furusato wa moto koshi koma ni makasete zo kuru
In the evening dark I cannot even see the road, yet to this old familiar place I have come, trusting myself to the horse that brought me here before.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Koma ni koso makasetarikere ayanaku mo kokoro no kuru to omoikeru kana
So it was the horse you trusted to bring you. How foolish of me to think that it was your heart that had come.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Izukata ni kotozute yarite karigane no au koto mare ni ima wa naruran
To whom have you been sending your messages, that now, like the wild geese that come but once a year, our meetings have grown so rare?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ari to dani kikubeki mono o ausaka no seki no anata zo harukekarikeru
I would like at least to hear that you are well, but the land beyond the Ausaka barrier is so very far away.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Sekimori ga aratamaru chō ausaka no yūtsukedori wa nakitsutsu zo yuku
At Ausaka, where they say the barrier guard has been replaced, I pass on like the bark-cloth bird, weeping as I go.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yukikaeri kite mo kikanan ausaka no seki ni kawareru hito mo ari ya to
Go and come back if you must, but ask and see for yourself whether there is anyone at the Ausaka barrier who has truly taken your place.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Moru hito no aru to wa kikedo ausaka no seki mo todomenu waga namida kana
I hear there is someone guarding the barrier, yet not even the Ausaka barrier can hold back these tears of mine.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Katsuragi ya kumeji ni watasu iwahashi no nakanaka nite mo kaerinuru kana
Like the stone bridge they tried to span across Kumeji in Katsuragi, left broken off halfway, I have gone home with everything left half done.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nakataete kuru hito mo naki katsuragi no kumeji no hashi wa ima mo ayaushi
The bridge of Kumeji in Katsuragi, broken off in the middle, with no one crossing it to come to me, is as unsafe as ever even now.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Shirakumo no mina hitomura ni mieshikado tachiidete kimi o omoisometeki
Like white clouds, you all seemed to me a single bank of white, but when you stepped out from among them, like a cloud drifting free, I began to love you.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Ariyoshi
Yoso naredo kokoro bakari wa kaketaru o nado ka omoi ni kawakazaruran
Though we are apart, I have hung my whole heart upon you—so why is it that, held to the fire of my longing, my tear-soaked sleeves will not dry?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Waga koi no kiyuru ma mo naku kurushiki wa awanu nageki ya moewataruran
My love never dies down even for a moment, and the pain never ceases—is it because the firewood of my grief at not meeting you goes on burning?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kiezu nomi moyuru omoi wa tōkeredo mi mo kogarenuru mono ni zo arikeru
That fire of your longing, burning without ever dying out, is far away from me—and yet I find that my body, too, is scorched by it.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ue ni nomi oroka ni moyuru kayaribi no yo ni mo soko ni wa omoikogareji
Like a mosquito smudge that smolders only on the surface, carelessly, you surely do not burn with longing for me down in the depths of your heart.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kawa to nomi wataru o miru ni nagusamade kurushiki koto zo iyamasari naru
Seeing you only pass me by, as one crosses a river and goes on, I find no comfort, and my pain only grows greater and greater.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet